Qudos Bank Arena, December 8
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How soon is too soon to be playing the nostalgia circuit? It doesn\u2019t seem that long ago that 50 Cent was topping the charts and producing hits that were almost mandatory for a night at the club, but it has been 20 years since he instructed us to Get Rich or Die Tryin\u2019<\/em> and he\u2019s calling this tour The Final Lap.<\/p>\n While Curtis Jackson III might have evolved to become a mogul, actor and executive producer of television, 50 Cent the rap star sticks to the tricks that made him famous in the first place: tight, funky grooves and smooth flows about sex, drugs and violence that leave nothing to the imagination.<\/p>\n Curtis \u201c50 Cent\u201d Jackson on his tour of Australia.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Rick Clifford<\/cite><\/p>\n After a false start when a smoke detector appeared to malfunction, undermining the Houdini-inspired entrance, 50 whipped through the early songs in the set with panache. What Up Gangsta<\/i> and I Get Money<\/i> set the theme for the night with their macho braggadocio.<\/p>\n The hard-working dancers brought the sex appeal for Lil\u2019 Kim collab Magic Stick<\/i>, and between them, the band, the light show and the pyrotechnics, there were no dull moments. For all of 50 Cent\u2019s skill at creating hooks and executing bars, his vocals can skew towards the monotonous; he gets around this by never lingering too long on any one song, and putting on a spectacle.<\/p>\n The highlights came in the middle. After a costume break and a much more effective apparition floating in the middle of the stadium, 50 brought sheer hedonism in the form of the Caribbean-tinged P.I.M.P.<\/i> and the dance floor-driven Candy Shop<\/i>.<\/p>\n On the slower and more reflective side, the R&B-inspired 21 Questions<\/i> proved a reminder 50 Cent can be intimate without being explicit. In other hands it might have even been touching, but before too long he had returned to the sexy Just a Lil Bit<\/i> and the barnstorming In da Club<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n